He decided to return to fulltime military
duty when the judge advocate position
opened for the North Dakota National
Guard. This brought Dohrmann and his wife,
Rebekah, also a lawyer, to Bismarck in 1998,
where they have lived since.
JAG duties fulfilling
Dohrmann’s work as judge advocate brought
a variety of responsibilities. “I was general
counsel to the Adjutant General and all
other state National Guard leaders,” he said.
His work involved contract and real estate
law, and he helped state soldiers get wills and
other papers in order before deployment.
“I handled two adoptions, which was very
fulfilling. And, one of my most interesting
cases involved getting citizenship for a
soldier who was deployed in Iraq when he
found out he was not a U.S. citizen.”
He also was the point person for state
legislative activities, monitoring legislation
of interest, testifying at hearings and
meeting with state and federal officials and
lawmakers.
Dohrmann was a judge advocate in North
Dakota until 2004, except for one year
beginning in July 2001 when he attended
the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
at Tufts University near Boston, as a
Department of Defense Fellow.
Deployment to Kosovo
In 2004, he was attached with the Ohio
National Guard to be the Command Judge
Advocate with Kosovo Force 6A, Camp
Bondsteel, Kosovo. Dohrmann said he
looked for an opportunity to be deployed
overseas. “It’s hard for some people to
understand, but wanting to serve during
times of conflict gets into the DNA of
soldiers. It’s the same reason why so many
enlist after a national tragedy like the
September 11, 2001, attacks.”
He returned to Bismarck in June 2005 to
spend the next four years working under
Adjutant General Michael Haugen as
director of personnel, joint chief of staff
and commander of the land component
command.
“
Critical thinking is drilled into lawyers. You learn
how to ask the hard questions... Curiosity helps
you find out what you don’t know, especially
when not everything is black and white, or when
common sense is needed.
- Major General Al Dohrmann
Another year-long deployment to Camp
Bondsteel, Kosovo, began in 2009.
Dohrmann was commanding general
of Task Force Falcon, a NATO-led
peacekeeping operation with 2,500 soldiers
from the United States and seven other
countries, including nearly 700 North
Dakota soldiers. This was the first time
since the Korean War that so many North
Dakota soldiers served under the same flag
for an overseas deployment.
Upon returning to Bismarck in 2010,
Dohrmann became the assistant adjutant
general, a position he held until his
promotion in December 2015.
Asking the hard questions
Dohrmann says being a lawyer has helped
him be a more effective military leader.
“Critical [